By Howard Koplowitz

As his colleagues feared for their safety, Mo Brooks was “cheering on” the insurrectionists who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a former staffer to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

But the Huntsville congressman and 2022 Alabama Senate candidate called the claim “total bovine excrement” and suggested it was made to harm his campaign.

“When we were still on the [House] floor, members were fearful for their lives. Republican members themselves — men crying in the cloak room for their safety,” said Ryan O’Toole, a former aide to McCarthy who now works for Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who sits on the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“As we escaped the chamber — to what sounded like gunshots — to the secure location, I think people were still scared, members and staff were still scared and not sure what was happening,” O’Toole told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday.

But O’Toole said Brooks, who earlier spoke at the “Save America” rally on Jan. 6 at the Ellipse near the White House to protest the 2020 election results and featured Donald Trump, was in an upbeat mood.

“You did have some members express a different view. One member, Mo Brooks, for example, was glad,” O’Toole said. “He was cheering on the fact that the 117th Congress started this way. That was much to the dismay of others in the room, and certainly I think does not carry the sentiment that the day has today.”

Brooks called O’Toole’s claim “total bovine excrement,” adding that the former McCarthy aide’s switch to Cheney’s office “says a lot about why he lied.”

“He is out and out lying. It’s total bovine excrement,” the congressman said.

In a text message to AL.com, Brooks said he previously called for prosecuting anyone involved in the insurrection who “violated the law.”

“Further, I have frequently expressed great displeasure with those who attacked the Capitol because, in part, the attack destroyed almost two months of work on evidence of voter fraud and election theft activity that was to be presented in the House chamber on Jan. 6,” the congressman continued.

In a phone interview with AL.com, Brooks questioned why O’Toole waited a year to make the claim, saying the timing “indicates it has more to do with this Senate race.”

The congressman is endorsed by Donald Trump in Alabama’s upcoming U.S. Senate race to replace the retiring Sen. Richard Shelby.

Brooks has been criticized over his presence at the “Save America” rally, including his plea to attendees to “start taking down names and kicking ass,” which some said was a call for violence.

But Brooks has denied advocating for violence, maintaining he was talking about Republicans “kicking ass” in the 2022 and 2024 elections.

This post was originally published on this site